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Top Democrat Accuses House GOP of ‘Full-Scale Attempt To Eliminate Public Education’ Jake Johnson June 26, 2024 Common Dreams     Rep. Rosa DeLauro said Republicans' newly proposed funding cuts threaten "the future of an entire generation." , Freepik   The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday accused her Republican colleagues of working to completely decimate U.S. public education by proposing steep cuts to key programs in a newly released funding bill. Republicans on the appropriations panel, chaired by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), weren't shy about the expansive spending cuts they're pursuing: In a statement, the committee's GOP majority noted that its fiscal year 2025 funding legislation for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and other related agencies would fully eliminate 57 programs, slash 48 more, and reduce spending on K-12 education grants. An appropriations subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the bill on Thursday morning. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in response to the majority's legislation that "Republicans are in the midst of a full-scale attempt to eliminate public education that makes the American Dream possible," noting that the proposal gashes "support for children in K-12 elementary schools, threatening the future of an entire generation." According to a fact sheet released by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, the proposed GOP funding levels would cut the Department of Education by $11 billion, or 14% below 2024 levels. Specifically, the measure would slash Title I Grants to local educational agencies by roughly $5 billion, reducing assistance for school districts with a large number of students from low-income families.

Local Congressman Kevin Kiley ( R-California) supports this anti education agenda.

See below.

Project 2025. 

 

Last weekend, Kevin Roberts, the president of The Heritage Foundation, which is behind the Project 2025 plan, went on MSNBC to not just defend the policy proposal but to gloat about it and celebrate it.¹

During his interview, he said that the goal of Project 2025 was to "institutionalize Trumpism" as the guiding principles for our government.² Terrifying.

The vast majority of voters do not agree with plans laid out in Project 2025, and when they hear about it, they abandon Trump and the Republicans in droves. The problem is, not enough voters know that it exists. Which is why MoveOn is dedicating our resources to get the truth out to voters.

There are so many awful, bigoted, and authoritarian elements of Project 2025, but let's focus on one that Roberts discussed at length during his interview and that Trump has parroted on the campaign trail: abolishing the Department of Education.³

On MSNBC, Roberts affirmed that Project 2025 calls for firing "more than 50,000" career civil servants and that thousands of those would come from the Education Department when it is shut down.⁴

What he refused to discuss, however, were the actual consequences of eliminating the department. In short, they would be catastrophic.

The DOE has wide-ranging responsibilities overseeing education in our nation, but its three largest areas of work are providing student loans, managing the Title I program, and implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).⁵

So what would happen to these programs if the department suddenly disappeared?

Student Loans
Each year, the federal government provides more than $111 billion in federal student aid to nearly 7 million students.^6,7 If Project 2025 is implemented, funding for these loans will be cut by at least half and could be eliminated altogether.⁸

That means 7 million students who are currently able to access higher education because of federal financial aid will be at risk of losing those opportunities. The impacts will be felt entirely by students from poor, working, and middle-class families and will disproportionately affect students of color.

This would radically reshape the future of our country, which is precisely the goal of Project 2025. 

Title I
Each year, the Title I program provides nearly $18 billion in supplemental funding to schools and school districts in poor and underserved communities across the country.⁹ It is one of the most important pieces of education legislation in U.S. history, and it helps to provide equal access to education for all children in America, no matter where they live or how much money they have.¹⁰

Cutting funding would mean even less money for teachers, mental health staff, and interventions at Title I schools. It would mean even less money to pay essential educators. It would mean leaving tens of millions of students behind.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
IDEA ensures that more than 6.5 million infants, toddlers, children, and young adults with disabilities have free access to special education and other resources from birth to age 21.¹¹ It was originally passed in 1975 and since then has helped to provide both funding and legal protection against discrimination for hundreds of millions of people with disabilities.¹²

Without funding for IDEA, there will be no way to hold schools accountable for not providing adequate services to students, programs that millions of people with disabilities rely on will be cut, and millions of families will be left in the lurch. 

Let's get one thing straight: It is not an accident that so many of Project 2025's policies harm poor and marginalized communities and people of color.

This program is a surgical attack on those communities, with the goal of making America a white Christian nationalist nation that is run by and serves only the wealthy.

Duane, the policies laid out in Project 2025 are so extreme, so cartoonishly villainous, that voters have a difficult time believing it is even real.

But it is very real.

1. "Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts: Project 2025 framework will carry on for the next 10 years," Media Matters for America, June 24, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194204?t=7&akid=395211%2E22927824%2EO_CySw

2. Ibid.

3. "Project 2025: The Trump presidency wish list, explained," BBC, June 11, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194205?t=9&akid=395211%2E22927824%2EO_CySw

4. "Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts: Project 2025 framework will carry on for the next 10 years," Media Matters for America, June 24, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194204?t=11&akid=395211%2E22927824%2EO_CySw

  

The Media Pile On

 

Joe Biden is being treated far worse than Donald Trump by the two institutions critical for deciding the outcome of the 2024 election — the political parties and the media. 

The Republican Party has closed ranks around Trump -- despite the fact he’s a convicted felon, twice-impeached conman, sexual abuser, fraudulent businessman, self-described aspiring dictator for a day, pathological liar, and ringleader of an attempted coup against the United States. 

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is in a panic about Biden. Many party insiders are trying to force Biden out now, at the last minute, because he had a bad debate performance. 

Democratic leaders in Congress are telling their members they should “feel free to take whatever position about Biden’s candidacy is best for their district,” according to people involved in the conversations. For some, this means blasting Biden’s debate performance and calling on him to withdraw or suggest he seriously consider it. 

The media is just as bad. It has normalized Trump's non-stop lies during the debate as “old news.” Rather than treat those lies as further evidence of his proven dishonesty and criminality — and that another term of him at the helm will ruin the country — the media has focused on Biden’s halting speech and vacant gaze as evidence he’s incapable of running the country. 

Almost every member of the chattering class says Biden must go. None says Trump must go. 

They say Biden has another — perhaps “last” — chance this evening when he’s interviewed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. 

But even if Biden is coherent tonight, I doubt it will stop the uproar because the uproar feeds on itself: Some of it may be responsible for Biden’s waning polls. If Biden decides to stay in the race, the tumult will hurt his chances even more. 

All of this demonstrates the discipline of authoritarianism and the messiness of democracy. But that’s the nature of these two systems. Authoritarian fascism, such as Trump and his coterie are now peddling, is even more disciplined. 

All over the world (except in the UK), voters are choosing discipline over messiness, authoritarianism over democracy. 

To restate the obvious, we are living in dangerous times. 

Robert Reich 

How to make Biden's bad night into Trump's bad November

What About President Biden ?

 I want to take the time to disagree with the several people writing here saying that Biden should drop out.

 

For Biden to leave, there must be a viable, organizational response capable of defeating Trump and the MAGA crowd. 

Newsletters and posts will not do that.  There have to be constituencies engaged. 

This is not a skill that the Democratic Party is skilled with. 

 

This week I have been to a civil rights group meeting, and to children’s soccer.  Neither were discussion the Biden debate performance.  Mostly, we were complaining about the heat. 

 

Too much of the commentary urging Biden to leave is based upon rumor, and anonymous sources.  

When you get to actual sources, look at what was actually said.  NBC and MSNBC made big issues about what Nany Pelosi said, and what  Congressman Clyburn.      said.  Look at what was actually said. These were not calls for Biden to leave.  The press responses are over interpretations.  They are seeking to create a story, create news, which also creates  an electoral crisis. 

There is a valuable poll out today in the NYT. 

 

I don’t think we should make decisions based upon what Democrats can do ( alone). Alone, they can not defeat Trump. 

 

I encourage you to read Kim Atkins Stohr, Boston Globe.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/01/opinion/biden-democrats-drop-out-race/

 

Biden dropping out is a fantasy. Democrats can win — if they fight !

 

I encourage all to read Rand Wilson, Election 2024: A Chess Move, Not a Valentine. From the Stansbury Forum and Portside.

https://portside.org/2024-06-29/election-2024-chess-move-not-valentine

 

What we need to be working on is defeating Trump and the MAGAs.  That requires unity, and institutional power, among other things.  Wilson describes it well. 

 

Now, he may drop out as some are cheering.  If that happens, our tasks of defeating the Trump MAGA crowd grow exponentially. 

Plot by Right-Wing Billionaires to 'Sabotage' Public Cut Public Education

 

Sanders Report Details Plot by Right-Wing Billionaires to 'Sabotage' Public Cut Public Education

"Instead of siphoning money and increasing tax breaks to subsidize private education, we have a responsibility to ensure all students have access to quality K-12 education."

JAKE JOHNSON

Jun 25, 2024

24

Sen. Bernie Sanders released a report Tuesday detailing how right-wing billionaires are bankrolling coordinated efforts to privatize U.S. public education by promoting voucher programs that siphon critical funding away from already-underresourced public schools.

The report notes that last year, the American Federation for Children (AFC)—an organization funded by former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—"ousted state lawmakers in Iowa and Arkansas who resisted proposals to subsidize private education in states and passed expansive private school vouchers."

Aided by millions of dollars in funding from DeVos and her husband, "AFC's political affiliates and allies spent $9 million to win 277 out of 368 races to remove at least 40 incumbent lawmakers," the report adds.

The DeVos family is hardly alone in using its wealth to undercut U.S. public education. The Bradley Foundation, which has been knee-deep in efforts to privatize education in Wisconsin and across the country, spent $7.5 million in 2022 "to fund 34 state affiliates of the State Policy Network to push conservative policy agendas, including privatizing education, and $8.3 million to building a youth movement to 'win the American Culture War.'"

"The Koch-sponsored group, American Encore, has funneled substantial amounts into state governor races and ballot initiatives around the country, including more than $1.4 million to elect Arizona's former governor Doug Ducey in 2014 (who led the efforts to create the nation's first universal private school voucher)," the report adds.

"For too long, there's been a coordinated effort to sabotage our public schools and privatize our education system. Unacceptable."

The analysis also names billionaires Jess Yass of Susquehanna International Group, Richard Uihlein of Uline, and Bernard Marcus of Home Depot, all of whom have recently donated to the School Freedom Fund—a PAC that supports voucher programs and shuttering the U.S. Education Department.

More.